Newsletter

DONALD HEATH: App State, GSUfootball follow similar routes

For most of the past two decades, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern have been trying to get an edge in their pursuits of football supremacy.

Finding one of the two schools at the top of the Southern Conference standings is about as predictable year after year as rising gas prices.

For nine straight seasons and 15 of the last 16, either App or GSU claimed at least a share of the conference championship.

When they announced on the same day they would leave the SoCon and move up to the Sun Belt Conference, the main question that surfaced during this transition year was “Who’s playing for third?”

It hasn’t exactly turned out that way. Both schools have had to answer a different question, “What’s wrong?”

Even GSU, going into its game with Appalachian State on Saturday with a 4-2 record, was fielding questions of “What’s wrong?” after surprising setbacks at Wofford and Samford.

It was worse for the Mountaineers, then 1-6, with losses to North Carolina A&T of the MEAC and Charleston Southern.

Now the Eagles are coming off a 38-14 loss to App on Saturday. Brace for the juicy comments from fickle fans on Internet message boards.

How fickle are fans? Two years ago, the GSU-App game (with the Eagles ranked No. 1 and the Mountaineers No. 5) drew 6,000-plus more fans than the announced crowd of 23,901 on Saturday.

“Ticket sales are always going to be a question (during down seasons) but the vast majority has been supportive,” ASU athletic director Charlie Cobb said before the Georgia Southern game Saturday. “They realize we’re young and we’ve had a lot of injuries.”

Don’t talk injuries to the Eagles. On Game Day, one bus is dedicated to bringing injured players to Paulson Stadium. Star fullback/quarterback Jerick McKinnon could be a passenger for this week’s game against Furman after suffering a sprained ankle in Boone, N.C.

But that’s the way this season has gone. Appalachian State and Georgia Southern are near the bottom of the Southern Conference standings.

Both began the season saying they hoped to run the table, go undefeated in SoCon play and challenge someone to say they weren’t the best in the league — eligibility for conference crown be damned.

There’s probably a little snickering going on right now in Birmingham, home of the SoCon’s undefeated Samford Bulldogs.

The snickering might not be limited to Birmingham.

Future still ahead

The results of this season doesn’t mean Appalachian State and Georgia Southern didn’t make the right moves for their football programs.

Cobb said ASU spent 18 months looking into the move. He said the school had conversations with the Colonial Athletic Association, an FCS conference with greater media access.

But the move to the Sun Belt made more sense — particularly with Georgia Southern headed there.

“We had a lot of conversations with Georgia Southern and it was important to have a rival,” Cobb said. “I don’t know if one would have moved without the other.”

And both schools will be looking to carve a niche in the lower FBS level. Cobb hopes to fill in the football schedule with home-and-away tilts with East Carolina and rising FBS program Charlotte. He said the Mountaineers would like to play North Carolina and North Carolina State on a regular basis.

Duke and Wake Forest would also be attractive nearby partners.

“The reality is we’re not trying to be an ACC school,” Cobb said. “The reality is those budgets are significant higher. But do we want to play North Carolina and North Carolina State?”

He doesn’t continue because the answer is obvious. Appalachian craves games with the UNC and North Carolina State just like Georgia Southern wants to play Georgia and Georgia Tech.

But being at the FBS level costs money. Nationally televised bowl games (the Sun Belt has ties to four) and access to larger revenue streams will cut some of the financial expenses.

Cobb says he constantly hears the analogy of being a big fish in a small pond of the FCS, compared to a small fish in the large pond of the FBS.

But the move up will bring greater exposure for the school. Cobb said the freshmen retention rate at the school is the second highest in North Carolina.

“We have a school with tremendous programs and great energy and there’s high demand for enrollment,” Cobb said. “Certainly, (football provides) 24/7 marketing.”

The struggles of this season — whether ASU went undefeated or winless — will have little impact on the future. Next year, Appalachian State travels to Michigan. The Mountaineers pulled off one of the FCS’s greatest upsets when they knocked off the Wolverines 34-32 in 2007.

Cobb said some ASU fans say the rematch might ruin the initial accomplishment.

But the athletic director has a comeback. He points out that Team USA is 9-22-2 against the Russians since the Miracle on Ice.

“It didn’t ruin that moment,” he said.

Donald Heath is a sports reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at 912-652-0353 or donald.heath@savannahnow.com. Follow him on Twitter at DonaldHeathSMN.